With the shortage of skilled caregivers and the growing complexity of the healthcare industry, the potential for devastating healthcare errors has increased. Mistakes are often made during the health care process due to the sheer number of constantly changing caregivers, the growing complexity of health care, and opportunities for error. In a hospital environment, post-surgical procedures can be the most dangerous segment of a patient's hospital stay.
A number of attachments are associated with a patient in the provision of modern healthcare, particularly in a critical care or intensive care setting. As the number of attachments and functions provided by these attachments increases, the potential for adverse and other atypical events increases. For instance, particular risks include associating attachments to the wrong body site location of a patient and determining where to associate attachments.
Other risks include dispensing of medications and other consumables to a patient in an institutional environment. For instance, a medication or other consumable may be administered via an attachment to the incorrect body site of a patient.
A solution is needed for managing healthcare that is both safe and efficient. The solution should decrease the efforts and steps required of caregivers in order to minimize the opportunity for error.